Susan Brandt - Movie Maker and Local History, Local Music

Susan Brandt an enthusiastic historian.



Fraser Coast Libraries and the Maryborough and Wide Bay Burnett Historical Society Inc have been working on a Historypin project called Local Music, Local History. A small group of dedicated contributors have made this the most successful collaborative project yet launched by the Partnership since it began early in 2015. Susan Brandt is one of those volunteers. Susan is a keen history enthusiast who attends all our local events. When we wanted to try and challenge our production of content on the Historypin site she keenly offered to assist.  She also always asks interesting questions which helps complete the story of the pictures we find.

Susan says her interest in history began when she was growing up. Reading biographies about the childhoods of well-known people was one of her favourite past times. “There was a popular series in the libraries at that time.  It was called When they were Young. This fostered my love of historical novels and later history in high school and university” enthused  Susan.
Susan continued “Years later I worked in Aged Care. It was often quite demanding work, but one of the principal enjoyments of it was the reward of listening to older folk tell their life stories”.

Susan claims she has never done any formal research, but when she retired she joined two local historical societies in North West Sydney where she has  lived most of her life. “This area, which centred around Castle Hill, was one of the earliest settled areas of the colony of New South Wales, and the local history groups had marvellous material with which to work, including quite a few folk who were descended from the earliest European settlers” she explains.

“When I retired to the Fraser Coast in 2015, to be near my relatives, I knew very little of the history of Queensland at all. My first connection was discovering the Mary River was named after the Governor's wife, Lady Mary Fitzroy.She had been thrown from her carriage and killed in the grounds of Government House Parramatta, caused by the reckless driving of her husband the Governor. The spot was well known to me as it is very well marked in Parramatta Park”.

“Following that, I discovered the grave of John Carne Bidwill and read about his early role in the establishment of  Maryborough. The early settlers' homes in North West Sydney were often marked by the tree named after him: the Bunya or Araucaria bidwillii. Many still remain. From those connections I guess I just read any local history book I could find and attended history talks in the library. I have found the history of the area absolutely fascinating” she impassions.

Robin Hinricks, Marilyn Jensen and Susan Brandt sharing some music history photos.

“Historypin is interesting because it encourages local people to share their stories, and especially their old photos. Local information of this kind completes the picture that formal histories only touch upon” she continues. “This is especially so, in understanding the life of any community, how they worked, what interested them in times past. I would never have known of the role Alfred Wynne played in the community with his music store and radio station, were it not for the photos and information collected for the recent Historypin project about him”.

Susan Brandt, Marilyn Jensen and Ken Brooks (President of the Maryborough, Wide Bay and Burnett Historical Society Inc) getting the hang of Movie Maker.

We find History fascinating as well!

Do you know anything about the Fraser Coast’s Music History?

Susan Brandt and Marilyn Jensen used moviemaker to create a slide show of historical photos from 4MB. These can be found here

And it is a great effort, especially as it was a first go!

Other contributors include Marilyn Jensen, Peter Groom, Elwin Andersen, Karen Lynch and Robin Hinricks. Please feel free to come to the Historypin chat group on the first Tuesday of the month from 12-1pm at the Maryborough Library. You can also become a member on Historypin and add content to the libraries site.

Tags: #Historypin  #Frasercoastlibraries  #Localhistorylocalmusic